Inter-Generational Equity
2. States shall conserve and use the environment and natural resources for the benefit of present and future generations.
8. States shall cooperate in good faith with other States in implementing the preceding rights and obligations.
II. Principles, Rights and Obligations Concerning Transboundary Natural Resources and Environmental Interferences
Reasonable and Equitable Use
9. States shell use transboundary natural resources in a reasonable and equitable manner.
Strict Liability
11. States shall take all reasonable precautionary measures to limit the risk when carrying out or permitting certain dangerous but beneficial activities and shall ensure that compensation is provided should substantial transboundary harm occur even when the activities were not known to be harmful at the time they were undertaken.
Non-Discrimination
13. States shall apply as a minimum at least the same standards for environmental conduct and impacts regarding transboundary natural resources and environmental interferences as are applied domestically (i.e., do not do to others what you would not do to your own citizens).
Exchange of Information
15. States of origin shall provide timely and relevant information to the other concerned States regarding transboundary natural resources or environmental interferences.
16. States shall provide prior and timely notification and relevant information to the other concerned States and shall make or require an environmental assessment of planned activities which may have significant transboundary effects.
Prior Consultations
17. States of origin shall consult at an early stage and in good faith with other concerned States regarding existing or potential transboundary interferences with their use of a natural resource or the environment.
Emergency Situations
19. States shall develop contingency plans regarding emergency situations likely to cause transboundary environmental interferences and shall promptly warn, provide relevant information to and co-operate with concerned States when emergencies occur.
Footnote
* This summary is based on the more detailed legal formulations in the report to the Commission by the international legal experts group. (See Annexe 2 for a list of group members.) This summary highlights only the main thrusts of the principles and Articles and is not a substitute for the full text is published in Legal Principles for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, in press).